Pedicab Permits Capped, For Now

Pedicab rules regarding insurance, fares and more passed at a City Council meeting today.

Photo courtesy flickr.com/atmtx

While the city regulates and considers improvements to pedicab services, no new permits will be issued for six months.

With a relatively short agenda, pedicab permitting dominated today’s meeting of the Austin City Council. The council discussed two items related to the people-powered vehicles. One was approval of an ordinance governing areas pedicabs can operate, with restrictions on certain areas of Sixth Street. Other requirements included setting insurance minimums, requiring signage describing the cab company's fare system (tips only or flat fares), and the permitting moratorium mentioned above.

A separate measure called for the creation of designated staging areas downtown, to make it easier for people to hail a pedicab. The areas will be marked on downtown streets and intersections within 90 days, after making the rounds through a stakeholders group and the Urban Transportation Commission.

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It’s relatively light work for the Austin City Council today, what with a scant 40-item agenda and nary a single zoning item. Still there’s a few items of interest for intrepid council watchers.

Pedal Power: On the agenda are a couple of items regarding pedicabs, those ubiquitous, people-powered cabs pedaling all over Austin’s entertainment districts. The biggest change is a moratorium on new pedicab permits for six months.

Items 21 and 22 include new rules over how pedicabs can operate in the Sixth Street area. In addition to defining acceptable areas of operation, other possible changes include how customers may pay a pedicabber: both customers and pedicabs must form lines, and a customer may only hire the pedicab at the front of the line.

The investigation dates to 2007, and those taken into custody yesterday include Yassine Enterprises owner and President Hussein Ali "Mike" Yassine, his brothers Hadi Ali Yassine and Mohammed Ali Yassine, their assistant Marisse Marthe Ruales and six others. Cocaine distribution and over $200,000 in money-laundered cash are two charges in the investigation, and authorities suspect the clubs involved were fronts for these and other illegal activities.

Construction of affordable housing downtown could start in less than a year.

At a meeting tonight, Austin nonprofit Foundation Communities is making a pitch for their Capital Studios development – 135 apartments to be located on what's now a parking lot at 11th street and Trinity. A Foundation Communities spokesperson tells KUT News Capital Studios will be the first truly affordable downtown development in the last 40 years – and with rents ranging from $400 to $650, all bills paid, it’s hard to argue.

The low rents are designed to attract Austinites that work and play downtown, but can’t afford to live there – primarily young adults making $27,000 annually or less. Ten of the units will be reserved for working musicians and artists. Another 27 units will provide permanent supportive housing for clients transitioning out of homelessness, processed through agencies like Caritas, the Trinity Center, and the ARCH.